Let’s start with the question “are potatoes paleo?” If you google that, you will find many different answers ( a good article is found here http://paleoleap.com/are-white-potatoes-paleo/). When I started paleo, the answer was pretty much “no” BUT sweet potatoes are okay. This didn’t suit my sense of logic because if we are discussing the diet of Mr. and Mrs. Ugh, if they ate potatoes at all, they probably did not distinguish between the two…and they certainly didn’t eliminate the white potato merely because it was too high on the glycemic index. As time passed, many in the paleo community seemed to soften on the white potato issue. I use potatoes as a starchy vegetable and try to avoid the clearly non-paleo versions like potato chips and French fries (I confess I’m not totally successful at this) and I don’t indulge in potatoes daily. But when I do, I love this fairly healthy (it does have lots of oil in it) version of mashed potatoes

When I first gave up dairy, I would never have dreamed I would prefer mashed potatoes made with olive oil over those made with lots of butter and cream. But that is indeed the case. These mashed potatoes are smooth and rich with added layers of flavor from the broth in which the potatoes are cooked as well as the freshness from the chopped herbs.

The amount of olive oil you want to use in the potatoes will depend on how “tasty” your extra virgin olive oil is (and for this you must use extra virgin). You will need less of a very fruity/flavorful olive oil than of a bland one. Start with 2 tablespoons of oil, then add more until you have the flavor profile that you like best.

So, as happens all too frequently, I just couldn’t resist a bargain bunch of asparagus – even though I had no particular use for them. I brought them home, put them in the refrigerator (I didn’t put them into a green bag that would have extended the life until I really wanted to use them) and 3 days later they are looking sad. Soup, of course is the great burial ground of dying vegetables – so I took all the sad things I had in the fridge – 1 pathetic leek, 1 mangy stalk of lemon grass, and the drooping asparagus. Sounds appetizing, yes?? Unbelievably this is now one of my new favorite soups! In my first recipe test I had red pepper flakes but it made it pretty spicy so I eliminated them from the recipe – you may want to include some if you like your soup spicy. If you can eat dairy – this soup would be yummy garnished with yogurt.

This has always been my favorite dish to order when I’m having a meal at an Indian restaurant (or when I’m ordering in from one). It’s probably one of the only savory dishes I make that doesn’t contain either onion or garlic – which means I can serve it to my friend who is allergic to both.

Usually you find Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes) on restaurant menus but I like the texture and color that the peas (matar) contribute to the dish. Though I like the peas, if you are strictly paleo you may want to leave them out. When cooking this, it’s hard to tell how juicy your tomatoes are going to become, so you may or may not need additional water. Using boiling potatoes will ensure that your potato cubes remain pretty intact. You don’t want mashed potatoes; you want the dish to be just a little saucy.

Aloo Gobi Matar

Stir this dish occasionally as it cooks to make sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate completely.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Ground red pepper to taste

2 tablespoons water + additional if necessary

3 cups cauliflower florets

1 cup cubed new red or Yukon gold (boiling) potatoes

1 cup tomato wedges

1/2 cup peas, optional

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro + additional for garnish

Salt to taste

In a 3-quart pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the ginger and cook, stirring 30 seconds.

Breakfast is my favorite meal. I’m happy having breakfast for lunch or dinner or a snack.
When I first started on Paleo, white potatoes were not “legal”. That was actually my first deviation from strict Paleo. I thought of the logic of stone age gatherers finding both white and sweet potatoes and throwing away the white ones but consuming the sweet potatoes. Taking this image to an even more absurd height, I envision the conversation between mates: “Ugh dear, look what I brought home” and Ugh replying “don’t eat the white one, it’s too high on the glycemic index!”

That being said, you would think I have no objection to everyday home fries…and in fact I don’t, but I was wondering what someone who doesn’t eat white potatoes could do to substitute for home fries. My answer is jicama and fennel. YUM! A good choice even if you do eat white potatoes.

My grandmother made the world’s best stuffed cabbage. I have the recipe and have made it occasionally but it’s such a pain to make the cabbage rolls that it’s enough to discourage all but the most determined cook – and frankly I’m rarely that determined. Here is where my sister comes in. She is a natural out-of-the-box thinker and she created unstuffed cabbage. You make the meatballs and just cook them in the same sauce as the stuffed cabbage, but add lots of shredded cabbage. YUM and easy!

The challenge of converting this recipe to paleo was the meatballs because grandma always put rice in with the meat and since I don’t eat rice, I needed something the give the meatballs more interest and keep them from becoming too dry. After many tries I finally came up with this recipe that I just love.

First I added pork to the beef to add moisture (grandma definitely did not use pork as she was kosher). Then I added the cauliflower and potato flakes to capture the moisture and make the meat fluffier. Onion and garlic – well I don’t have to tell you what onion and garlic do. A little tomato sauce also adds to both texture and flavor.

I am so happy with the results I have to restrain myself from going back not just for seconds, but also for third and fourth servings.

Now that I have totally convinced you that Unstuffed Cabbage is the way to go, for anyone who still likes their cabbage stuffed, just use this filling and roll it up in parboiled cabbage leaves and cook according to the recipe

BTW I freeze these in individual servings and when I need a quick dinner just pop one in the microwave.

There are many ways to julienne vegetables. If you have divine knife skills, you need nothing more than a sharp knife and a cutting board. The chef or gourmet cook probably uses a mandoline – a very sharp and scary instrument that sits in my closet, never used. There are many types of mandolines varying in price from a few hundred for the classic stainless steel ones to $20 for a plastic one. Of the less expensive mandolines, I prefer the box type mandoline because it collects the shredded item in an attached container (box). If you are interested in the box model, Amazon is including 2 ebooks and a video in the $19.99 price…and BTW I couldn’t resist and bought one just now when I went to find a link for you! Okay, so let’s say I LOVE this mandoline, what about the julienner I writing about in this post. Will I still LOVE it?

I think the answer is yes. Yes, because it’s small and doesn’t take up much storage space. Yes, because you don’t have to clean a bunch of parts just to julienne one zucchini. Yes, because it does an awesome job and for zucchini it makes really long shreds and I won’t know about the box mandoline until I get mine and try it.

So let’s talk about Zucchetti aka Zucchini Spaghetti. As you can see, it’s long thin strands of zucchini, cooked and used instead of spaghetti. It surprises me to tell you that I prefer zucchetti to spaghetti. The lightness and freshness of the flavor makes real spaghetti seem clunky and heavy in comparison.

Be sure to saute the zucchetti just long enough for it to be softened. Over cooking it tends to make the strands collapse into each other…still edible but less appealing. You can saute it in olive oil and garlic for a simple dish. Or you can add any sauce that you usually like on pasta. I find meat sauce (recipe coming next week) my favorite but pesto or mushrooms are also delish.

I’m publishing this recipe at the request of my friend Paula W. We had a dinner date this week and I realized I’d been doing a lot of cooking and had a refrigerator full of recipe tests in need of a taster (beside myself). I’m happy to report that they were all delicious!

This particular dish was Paula’s favorite and she has already called me for the recipe…so Paula, here it is.

Another recipe straight from my expedition to the farmer’s market . The green beans just looked too perfect to pass up and the grape tomatoes were sweet as candy. These are great served warm or cold and are another of those recipes perfect to bring to a picnic or pot luck.

I’m feeling kind of stuck here for a longer narrative to share with you about this recipe or these ingredients, but this is just a straight forward recipe I created because I had great ingredients on hand.

It may not be an especially beautiful dish but it’s taste makes up for its looks. You’ll love it – really!

Despite the fact that I grew up in a family that loved good food, the number of different cuisines we tried was pretty much limited to Hungarian, Italian, Chinese, French, and Deli. It wasn’t until after college that I first had Japanese food and then it took me another 30 years before I tried sushi. In those before-sushi-years my go to dish was always beef sukiyaki. I loved the flavors as well as the show they put on when they cooked it at your table.

Fast forward many years – I’m a vegetarian and writing my book “1,000 Vegetarian Recipes” and as you can imagine, I’m trying to find diverse recipes for each chapter. Memories of beef sukiyaki float to my mind and before you know it I developed a great tofu sukiyaki. I will say that of the 1,000 recipes in that book, the tofu sukiyaki was probably one of the top ten I made over and over…you can tell by looking at the soy sauce stains on the page. In fact one it was one of the things that I really missed when I became paleo.

Never to be one to pass up a challenge, this week I set my mind to paleo sukiyaki. I went back to the original beef sukiyaki that started my love for it and then set about converting the sauce to paleo approved ingredients. Surprisingly it was really easy to achieve a super delicious version.

Coconut aminos, that I usually find to be a somewhat less than perfect substitute for soy sauce, turns out to be a natural for sukiyaki. Because the sauce for sukiyaki is quite sweet, the sweetness of the aminos allowed me to eliminate the need for sugar in the recipe. I added just a little fish sauce to intensify the saltiness and that was it!

I use dried mushrooms I also bought in Chinatown. To be honest I have no idea what kind they are. They were in an open bin along with lots of other types of mushrooms and I just pointed to number 1046 and hoped it was good. I think dried shiitaki mushrooms would be a good substitute. For the fresh mushrooms I used a mixture of white and brown beech mushrooms as well as enoki. Just regular white mushrooms, sliced would also work here.

For me this recipe is a real success and I’ll be making it often. Hope you like it too.

Cook outs, picnics, barbecues, pot lucks. Summer is the ideal time of year for entertaining and parties. I have a dim memory of having a salad something like this at my friend Paula’s house for Thanksgiving. She said she was tired of all the standard sweet potato recipes and made this salad instead. I thought the combination of ingredients was amazingly delicious – which is why I remember it all these years later – but I am sad to report it ‘s not a good vehicle for the roasted marshmallows that usually come along with sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving.

How did I get side tracked from summer entertaining? I brought this salad with me to a pot luck and it was a BIG hit. In fact, although I say it serves 6 to 8 – it was completely polished off by six women of a certain age. The good news is this recipe is easily doubled if you are cooking for a crowd.